SMART Job Seeker Cheat Sheet: Interview Questions to Ask an Employer

By Mary Salvino, Career Management Coach

Given that the interview process is an opportunity for both the candidate and the hiring manager get a sense of the right ‘fit’ in terms of organizational culture, job fit, and technical fit for him or her and that it is easy for a hiring manager to detect if a candidate is fully engaged in the interview or appears to be going through the motions, any candidate who probes and asks questions of substance is viewed as a more engaged candidate.   

This easy-to-use cheat sheet pulls together the best tips, tricks, and advice from our archives.  It has been created to provide suggestions related to common questions that job seekers could ask of the hiring manager during or at the end of an interview:

• Why did the person who previously held this job leave the position?
• What are the training and development opportunities?
• How would you describe the management style of the person or people to whom I will be reporting?
• How would you describe the organizational culture?
• How long have you been working here?
• What do you like about working here?
• What don’t you like about working here?
• If I am extended an offer, how soon would you like me to start?

If you like this article, please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. You can also join our open group on LinkedIn @ http://linkd.in/MRJMAH 

Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Show you care and share this article with your colleagues, coworkers and friends. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, the Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning. It is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future career opportunities. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an e-mail to Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca.

SMART Job Seeker Cheat Sheet: Personal Branding

 By Mary Salvino, Career Management Coach

This easy-to-use cheat sheet pulls together the best tips, tricks, and advice from our archives.  It has been created to provide clear recommendations on how to address the most common areas for improvement related to personal branding during your job search: 

• Identify your strengths – In which industry-related topics do you feel competent?
• Create websites to showcase your skills – WordPress, Blogger, YouTube, Facebook fan page, Google+ business page, free on-line magazines
• Choose your medium – Blog, Video, Public Speaking, Host/Manage a group on LinkedIn
• Post content on your blog on a regular basis
• Make it easy for your readers to share your content
• Join professional on-line community groups
• Leave thoughtful comments on the conversation threads started by other people who work in your industry
• Use Twitter to find and/or follow like-minded people/leaders who are interested/write about your profession/niche
• Find/use tools to make it more efficient to publish and promote your blog

If you like this article, please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. You can also join our open group on LinkedIn @ http://linkd.in/MRJMAH 

Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Show you care and share this article with your colleagues, coworkers and friends. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, the Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com. It is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future career opportunities. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an e-mail to Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca.

SMART Job Seeker Cheat Sheet: E-mail Management

 By Mary Salvino, Career Management Coach

This easy-to-use cheat sheet pulls together the best tips, tricks, and advice from our archives.  It has been created to provide clear recommendations on how to address the most common areas for improvement related to managing your e-mail in-box during your job search: 

• Turn off the incoming mail ping/notification on your computer
• Check e-mail only at specific times during the day:
• First task in the morning
• Noon
• An hour before you are scheduled to leave for the day
• Apply RAT rules to e-mail as they come into your in-box:
• Read
• Action:
• Respond
• File:
• To do/Calendar
• Reference
• Trash
• Colour code and/or create sub-folders as needed:
• Personal
• Work
• Use the same names/colours for folders and sub-folders in both your in-box and your out-box (sent mail)
• Archive old e-mail on a weekly basis
• Purge in-box daily

If you like this article, please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. You can also join our open group on LinkedIn @ http://linkd.in/MRJMAH 

Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Show you care and share this article with your colleagues, coworkers and friends. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, the Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com. It is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future career opportunities. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an e-mail to Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca.

SMART Job Seeker Cheat Sheet: Active Listening

By Mary Salvino, Career Management Coach

This easy-to-use cheat sheet pulls together the best tips, tricks, and advice from our archives.  It has been created to provide clear recommendations on how to address the most common areas for improvement related to active listening during face-to-face interviews. 

Good communication skills require a high level of self-awareness - By understanding your personal style of communicating, you will go a long way towards creating good and lasting impressions with others:

• Do not allow yourself to become distracted by whatever else may be going on around you. – The interviewer may be taking notes, phones ring, and interruptions happen.
• Pay attention - . Recognize that non-verbal communication also "speaks" loudly.
• Maintain eye contact with the interviewer – If you are being interviewed by more than one person, as would be the case if you were asked to participate in a panel interview, ensure that you make eye-contact with each member of the interviewing committee
• Put aside distracting thoughts
• Wait until the interview has asked the question in its entirety before you answer -  If you are finding it particularly difficult to concentrate on what someone is saying, try repeating their words mentally as words are uttered
• "Listen" to the speaker's body language
• Show that you are listening:
• Nod occasionally
• Smile and/or use other facial expressions as needed
• Ensure that your posture is open – Do not cross your arms in front of you
• Ask for clarification if you are unsure about the question being asked – Take the time to paraphrase the question to ensure understanding
• Respond appropriately:
• Be candid, open and honest when responding to the question
• Focus on experiential content
• Assert your opinions respectfully
• Learn to use the gap between rate of speech and your rate of thought appropriately

–        Hint #1: Take a sip of water to gather or form your thoughts before you answer the questions

–        Hint #2: Try not to guess the next question

–        Hint #3: The ‘best’ interviews are conversations

If you like this article, please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. You can also join our open group on LinkedIn @ http://linkd.in/MRJMAH 

Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Show you care and share this article with your colleagues, coworkers and friends. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, the Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com. It is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future career opportunities. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an e-mail to Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca.

SMART Job Seeker Cheat Sheet: Time Management

 By Mary Salvino, Career Management Coach

This easy-to-use cheat sheet pulls together the best tips, tricks, and advice from our archives.  It has been created to provide clear recommendations on how to address the most common areas for improvements related to managing your time during your job search: 

• Eliminate/mitigate ALL distractions:
• Learn to say, “No”
• Turn off your phone
• Check e-mail only at scheduled times of the day – 9:00 am, noon and 4:00pm
• Shut the door to your office
• Take the first 30 minutes of your workday to plan/re-prioritize your daily activities
• Identify and use some sort of simple time-management system:
• Excel sheet?
• Post it notes?
• Pen and paper?
• Electronic calendar/agenda?
• Establish routines and stick to them as much as possible
• Set time limits to address each task
• Classify your tasks into one of the following:
• Maintenance tasks
• Progress tasks
• Sort your tasks into one of the following categories:
• Must do
• Should do
• Nice to do
• Delegate
• Eliminate
• Colour code your tasks using the following system:
• Red – URGENT
• Amber – Important
• Green – If time permits
• Add/prioritize top 3 tasks in each category
• Complete all tasks on your RED list before turning your attention to the Amber tasks.  Complete all items on your Amber task list and address the green tasks on your list at the end of your day.  (Be ruthless! If it is not on a list, it doesn’t get done!)

Do you have any other time-management tips to share?

 

If you like this article, please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. You can also join our open group on LinkedIn @ http://linkd.in/MRJMAH 

Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved.  Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2013, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, the Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com. It is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future career opportunities. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an e-mail to Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca.